A method for producing a ready-for-use camshaft is known for example from WO 2012/031770 A1, wherein, for the joining of cam elements to the carrier shaft, cooling of the carrier shaft and heating of the cam elements is performed in order to enable the carrier shaft to be pushed through the bores of the camshaft. The carrier shaft should subsequently be heated again, and the cam elements are cooled again. As a result, the cam elements are secured on the carrier shaft with an interference fit, which arises as a result of the thermal changes in shape. The heating and subsequent cooling is however disadvantageous, and requires a high level of outlay in terms of tooling, and is implemented in particular if a continuous, non-openable bearing channel is provided for example in a camshaft module for arrangement on the cylinder head of an internal combustion engine, through which bearing channel the carrier shaft must be pushed. Often, a further machining step is necessary in order to align the cam elements on the carrier shaft, which further machining step must likewise be avoided.
DE 3717190 A1 presents a basic principle of a method for mounting cam elements on prepared cam seats that are formed on the outer surface of a carrier shaft. The cam seats form sections which comprise an increased diameter in relation to those sections of the carrier shaft which do not form the cam seats. Here, it is proposed that the cam elements be pushed onto the cam seats with plastic deformation occurring in the hub connection. The cam seats are in this case produced by way of a roller-burnishing process or a rolling process, and may for example form an encircling channel structure. The widened regions for forming the cam seats should be produced using a mandrel tool, with which only a low level of accuracy is possible. To produce a ready-for-use camshaft, the cam elements, which are produced from a sintered material, must subsequently undergo finish machining, for example by way of a grinding and/or polishing process.
Often, camshafts comprise end components, for example in the form of a drive wheel for a traction mechanism, that is to say for example a sprocket, a belt pulley or an attachment flange for a belt pulley. The end component may be fastened to the carrier shaft and may for example also form a phase adjuster or at least a part of a phase adjuster. Such end components must be aligned accurately relative to the carrier shaft, and it is often the case that multiple cutting machining steps in different chucking setups are necessary in order to provide the end component and the carrier shaft such that these are in particular free from position errors and concentricity errors with respect to one another.